Singles

Exorbitant, outrageous, and claimed by some to be the most expensive EDM video ever made. Deadmau5 was always going to go the commercial route and the classic pop star collaboration allows you to double or even triple your existing fan base. It’s exploitation that nobody realises is going on.

The Mau5 couldn’t be happy just with that though, of course, there’s some sneaky but quite obvious product placement. If you didn’t know there were Mau5 headphones, you will now. They’re bright, yellow, silly, and you’ll want them.

The video is some sort of fight thing between the two (Mau5 and Way) that involves them controlling two giant mice. It’s mildly entertaining but it is extremely self-important. Mau5 doesn’t do modesty or sophistication any more.

I’ll be honest – I don’t like Deadmau5. Not so much his music, but his personality. He’s the Bob Geldof of the EDM world, one of those annoying twerps who pretend they’re “cool”, “underground” and do things “differently” when really they’re just another irritating egotistical pop star. Honestly, we now know why Canada is so big yet has so few people, there had to be room for his head somewhere.

But we do like his music particularly his older tracks. This track is OK, there’s not much else to say about it. Think, it’s a collaboration, it’s not likely to be Deadmau5′s best, it is a commercial exercise, there isn’t much else to say about it except that it’s OK.

I just don’t really dig Mau5 any more. He’s not innovating or doing anything fresh or different. He’s just showing off and selling headphones.

Having emerged from the Canadian and Berlin house and techno scene, 33 year old producer and DJ Noah Pred gives us a cosmopolitan taste and an urban feel in his new track.

With use of 808 sounding drums and phasing, robotic and nasal sounding synths, it’s easy to feel lost within the late 1980s/early 1990s. It’s a reminder of the music that was played during the early days of acid house. For a DJ and music producer that has played an active role within dance music for over 10 years, it wouldn’t be surprising if there was an acid house influence. And behind the influence, perhaps it was the transfer from one continent to another.

Overall, Find Your Way is a clean minimal track that includes a variety of glitchy, blippy and futuristic sounds. There is even use of a vocal sample that’s been given a run through a vocoder. It’s catchy and the structure builds steadily. As the track builds the combination of all instruments each stand out. There is a great deal of space between instruments in the mix. It would be interesting to see how Noah Pred would mix this in to other tracks.

If the minimal, acidic, techno feel is your style of music, Find Your Way is to be released on 9th July (Affin).

Hot Off the Press

Fresh out of the underground dance music scene comes a deep house music remix of Sound Dealers, by German music producer Langenberg. It’s no surprise that Germany has been one large convention for present and future boffins of the dance floor.

Hi-hats rattle prominently throughout the track. Bongo percussion and the kick drums have such a striking amount of warmth and depth. Digital organ sounding synths sit gently on top of the percussion and bass, and are layered beautifully underneath the vocals. String chords compliment the track. The vocals are powerful and haunting, without overpowering the other instruments.

The remix is intriguing and hypnotic. It’s easy for the listener to fully engage and follow in the direction of where the track goes. At times deep house remixes can be challenging when finding what elements to extract from the original song. Having listened to the production and mix of the Langenberg remix, it shows the brilliant attention to detail paid.The track is now available to download from Beatport

A couple of years ago we checked out Italian producer Slok and since then he’s grown, a steady rise in notability and quality releases, the Electronic Petz label owners popularity seems on the increase.

Feel Alive is his latest EP, and features remixes courtesy of Sub-an and Lopazz & Casio Casino. The vocals, by “My Favourite Robot” aka Voytek Korab, James Teej and Jared Simms from Canada, are sublime combining effortlessly with the slick beats for a super cool end result.

British producer Sub-an takes things a little more underground twisting the track into slower progressive house, but with a cheeky melody. Lopazz & Casio Casino retain more of the original but with a deeper bass line.

Just because we really like the vocals though, the original seems the strongest track here as it uses them more effectively, giving off this moody but chilled vibe that’s slightly difficult to pin down and easier to just…enjoy. Expect more strong releases from Slok to come.

Northern Irish new boys Miami House Party have only been producing together since around the start of the year, but have already produced a couple of quality tracks that have been played on Radio 1 and RTE.

Tornado is the stand out track, a progressive house number with a big room sound. It’s exactly the type of track that Dave Pearce would have arse licked on Dance Anthems and we strongly suspect it would get Judge Jules’ head nodding in agreement too.

The initial build up is the best, the timing of the drop perfected. Miami House Party’s production qualities are obvious, and whilst Tornado might not blow the roof off for everybody, it’s a seriously large tune that signals seriously large intent.

Whilst you’re at it, check out “Vibe“, an equally good track but a little more funky.

So I’m home a bit earlier than usual and chilling out in the March sunshine with a beer. A press release pops through, and I crack open the link. First impressions are good, I have a soundcloud link I can instantly access instead of having to download and extract some next ZIP file!

We know, simply from the sheer number of promos we get from new labels, how tricky the first release is, but for Diamond & Raw, this sounds more like their 200th. Acutely polished, the production quality seeps through every beat and the vocal talent is delicious.

The track is given an African flavour makeover courtesy of Auntie Flo for the first remix, whilst Gullfisk reels in the energy and replaces it with a deep, soulful, chilled out vibe for the second. It’s a track that is as effortlessly cool as the moment I’m currently in.

So all you beach front bars up and down the UK, or anywhere, if you’re looking for a summer soundtrack, you could do significantly worse.